Aug. 26 (BusinessDesk) – United States-based Intuit increased its subscribers in the US at a steady pace in its fourth quarter but increased momentum in gains outside the US, suggesting it may soon overtake Xero as market leader.

By Jenny Ruth

Aug. 26 (BusinessDesk) – United States-based Intuit increased its subscribers in the US at a steady pace in its fourth quarter but increased momentum in gains outside the US, suggesting it may soon overtake Xero as market leader.

Xero’s arch rival in providing accounting software grew overall subscribers 33 percent to more than 4.5 million in the year ended July, up from 4.2 million at the end of April.

Growth in US subscribers was 25 percent to more than 3.2 million, the same as in the third quarter but down from the second-quarter growth of 32 percent.

Customer numbers outside the US grew 58 percent to 1.3 million, up from the third-quarter pace of 55 percent.

Xero reports half-yearly and hasn’t provided an update on its subscriber numbers from March when it had 195,000 US subscribers, up 48 percent from 132,000 a year earlier.

Outside the US, Xero had 1.6 million subscribers, up 29.4 percent, making it the market leader but suggesting that Intuit is fast catching up.

“Our business continued its strong momentum in the fourth quarter,” says Intuit chief executive Sasan Goodarzi.